Woerden, Netherlands – Belgian Tom Meeusen took his first win of the season in the 2010 Kiremko Nacht van Woerden. The Telenet-Fidea rider, added to the field a day before the race due to illness of his teammate Bart Wellens, was too strong for the Rabobank-Giant Offroad duo of Bart Aernouts and Gerben de Knegt. Christophe Pfingsten and Tom van den Bosch finished as fourth and fifth. British rider Ian Field had an impressive ride to snag sixth place. Both Meeusen and Tom Peeters had also been controversially left off of the Belgian World Cup contingent, which is limited to eight riders per country.

Dutchmen Gerben de Knegt and Thijs van Amerongen took the holeshot, followed by Bart Aernouts, Christophe Pfingsten and British Ian Field, among others. The strong and surprising Pfingsten took control in the second lap and led the race for about three laps, followed by a large group with the favorites Aernouts, Meeusen, de Knegt and Dieter Vanthourenhout.

About halfway through the race, Aernouts took control. Meeusen took over one lap later, and Aernouts wasn’t able to follow the pace of the young Belgian. Aernouts dropped back to the chasing duo De Knegt and Pfingsten in the battle for second.

The impressing Meeusen extended his lead lap by lap and was making a real one-man show of it. He was even animating the public by jumping over the planks on the course. The battle for second was decided in the final lap when Aernouts attacked his companions on the barriers.

Meeusen was excited by his first Elite win. “I’m very happy with this win. It’s my first win in an A-Cross. Last year I was close several times between racing the pros and the U23s,” says Meeusen. “I had a bad start, but once I got in front I quickly created a gap on my competitors. The past weeks I trained hard as I wasn’t selected for the first two World Cups, but all the work luckily paid off.” Aernouts took his third second place of the season after Erpe-Mere and Ruddervoorde. “It didn’t go badly today, but I wasn’t super. It was a course with lots of turns, and I couldn’t answer the attack of Tom. He just was a little better today. The feeling is still good and I am going to make the best of it in the next races.”

The win in the U23 race went to Twan van den Brand. Micki van Empel finished in second, with Mike Teunissen third.

Van den Brand beats Van Paassen
Daphny van den Brand (ZZPR) took her first win of the season in Woerden after four second places. Van den Brand profited from a small mistake by Sanne van Paassen in the final lap. Britain’s Helen Wyman finished third, Pavla Havlikova fourth and Sanne Cant filled out the top five. Van den Brand and van Paassen animated the race from start to finish. Dutch Reza Hormed was less fortunate as she crashed badly and had to be transfered to the hospital.

“It’s a special win”, said Van den Brand. “It’s the only night ’cross, and it just has something special. The course was slippery due to the rain and it was necessary to take fewer risks in the corners. In the final lap I guess Sanne took a little too many risks as she went down in one of the corners.”

Cyclocross Magazine regular contributor had a strong ride to claim 20th, the last point-scoring position.

The wins in the other races went to Sabrina Stultiens (Junior Women), Evy Kuipers (Beginner Women) and Danny van Poppel (Junior Women). Full results beneath the Photo Gallery.

Read the magazine:

Join our Team!

Deals:

Cyclocross MagazineAbout Us

Cyclocross Magazine is a print and digital magazine and website for the cyclocross community by cyclocross racers. We’re based on community-contributed content, which means we welcome content submissions from anyone and prioritize representing all aspects of the sport of cyclocross, from the most grass-roots scene to the highest professional level of the sport.